6 How He Knew

Chapter 6 How He Knew Later, back in Baker Street, Holmes told me how he had worked out the identity of the murderer. "I telegraphed the head of police in Cleveland, Ohio, and he told me that Drebber had asked for police protection against an old love rival named Jefferson Hope. This same Hope, he said, was currently in Europe. "It was clear to me that if Hope was the murderer, then he had to be a cabman. The marks in the road outside the Brixton house showed that the cabman's horse had wandered on in a way that would have been impossible if anyone had been in charge of it. So, the cabman must have gone into the house with the victim. I therefore sent out my Baker Street Irregulars and they quickly found Mr. Hope working for the cab company and summoned him here." We had been warned to appear before the magistrates the following Thursday to give evidence, but when Thursday came, there was no need of our presence. The morning after he gave his account to us, Jefferson Hope was found dead in his cell with a peaceful smile on his face.

后来，回到贝克街，福尔摩斯告诉我他是怎样查出凶手的身份的。 "我给俄亥俄州克利夫兰警察局局长打了个电报，他告诉我说锥伯请求警察保护他对付一个叫杰弗逊·侯波的旧情人。 他说，同样的希望目前也在欧洲。 “我很清楚，如果霍普是凶手，那么他一定是个马车夫。 布里克斯顿家房子外面路上的痕迹表明，马车夫的马已经走了，如果有人看管它，那是不可能的。 所以，出租车司机一定是和死者一起进了房子。 于是我派了我的贝克街小分队出去，他们很快就找到了在出租马车公司工作的霍普先生，把他叫到这儿来了。” 我们被警告要在下个星期四到地方法官那里去作证，但是当星期四到来的时候，我们就不需要再出现了。 在他向我们交代后的第二天早上，杰弗逊·霍普被发现死在他的牢房里，脸上带着平静的微笑。

"Gregson and Lestrade will be annoyed," Holmes remarked as we chatted about it later that evening. "Putting him behind bars would have been a career highlight for them." "I don't see that they had very much to do with his capture," I said. "What you do in this world matters little," sighed my friend. "The key is what you can make people believe you've done. As for me, I wouldn't have missed this case for anything. It's been fun, hasn't it, Watson?"

“葛莱森和雷斯垂德会生气的，”那天晚上我们谈起这件事时福尔摩斯说。 “把他关进监狱将是他们职业生涯的亮点。” “我看不出他们和他的被捕有多大关系，”我说。 “你在这个世界上做什么并不重要，”我的朋友叹了口气。 “关键是你能让人们相信你做了什么。 至于我，无论如何我都不会错过这个案子。 这很有趣，是不是，华生？”

"Indeed it has," I replied. "I think I've developed a taste for this kind of adventure!"

“的确是这样，”我回答。 “我想我已经对这种冒险产生了兴趣！”